Alison Haig
aahaig@udel.edu

My family tree includes branches which now stem out to Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Delaware and Kansas. The roots, however, grew from Ireland, Poland, Belgium and Scotland. My paternal grandparents now live in Tulsa, Oklahoma which is a far stretch from Mont Sainte Alegonde, Belgium where my grandmother grew up. She met my grandfather during WWII when he was stationed in Belgium. My grandmother was a translator for the army at the time. They were married in Belgium and came back to the United States fifty years ago. My grandmother's sister and her family still live in Carniers today, which is a small village outside Brussels. My family often receives birthday and Christmas packages of Belgian chocolate and lace.

My paternal great-grandparents are from Glasgow, Scotland but eventually immigrated to the United States. Haig is not a highland clan family but my paternal great-grandmother's family is associated with the highland clan Young.

For many years, my maternal grandmother thought her family's nationality was Irish. In actuality, her father was Polish and was not too proud of the fact. So, whenever he was asked, he said he was Irish. My grandmother does dance a good Irish jig though. My maternal grandfather's family is Irish, for real.